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Hello,
I installed the Dev Beta 2 of High Sierra today on a new partition... yes i have a backup
I wanted to see if it was better for A+ with the new Finder coding and see if some bugs would disapear for me like the stoping of A+ playing for no reason for 1 or 2 seconds once a week.
For me, A+ have still troubles like others before High Sierra with the System Optimizer installing at first... in fact, i had to put back my preferemces of Sierra to make it works again Direct Mode is out also as it is dead since Sierra. I didn't try to replace de .ktext again to make it work because SuperDuper couldn't see my hard disk formatted for High Sierra new scheme thing. Onyx doesn't work either at this stage to repair the permissions after... So i enjoy A+ 3.0.7 like it is now, HQPlayer 3 still works and JRiver 22 also.
I putted back my A+ music database folder where it is supposed to be and my preferences for A+ software, and all was back like before with playlists included
The best thing for me with High Sierra, is now i can use the keyboard like it was before Sierra... Making the folder you clicked disappear while holding the ALT key to just keep the next one you have selected... and so on, to just have only one folder at a time open in the finder while browsing my music hard disc. SO GLAD that it is back for me!!
The Remote of A+ still works with my iPhone like before and my IOS application 'Remote Mouse' on the Mac and iPhone still control my MacMini on the TV with the iPhone if i want.
Parallels Desktop is still working with windows 10 installed on Mac Mini... nothing to do with music but needed by me
That's it for now. Enjoying music on High Sierra

After playing with audirvana and my Emotiva XDA-2, it seems like they best thing to do is to completely disable izotope.
But i wonder - how is DSD conversion to PCM take place? Doesn't it use the izotope settings as well? If so. The settings there are still important.
Can anyone confirm?

Hello folks, this is my first post around here. I am new to computer audio. Recently I put together this desktop system:
- Macbook Pro Retina (Late 2013) >> Audirvana Plus 2 >> AudioQuest Pearl USB cable >> DAC TEAC UD-301 >> XLR cables >> Active Speakers JBL LSR305.
I am pretty happy with it, since I used to listen to music in cheap earbuds, and now, with less than 600 bucks, my experience have changed so much! I have a few questions for the community:
1) I am using my DAC to control the volume, but in the transport area on Audirvana I can't see the volume knob representation. Is this normal with the TEAC?
2) I use macOS Sierra 10.12.1 in my MBP, and when I try to enable Direct Mode plus Integer Mode, there is an error when trying to playback music. Just Integer Mode enabled is fine, no problem. Is this normal?
3) Will I have an audible improvement by upsampling Tidal 16/44.1Khz music to 176.4Khz using the Teac feature? Or should I do it within the Audirvana Plus software? Or not at all?
4) Lastly, what setting tweaks do you recommend on A+ for my hardware configuration?
Thank you for all the useful info I got from this community already!
Diego

I have two Itunes libraries, one on my mac's internal drive, one on an external drive.
Both work fine in Itunes.
The internal one works fine with audirvana either audirvana solo or integrated with Itunes.
The one on the external drive will either fail to play a track (sticking at one second) or will play an album fine for a while and then play a track or two from a completely different album before returning to the original album. I have tried both using audirvana alone or integrated with itunes and I have tried both syncing with the itunes library or selecting the folders to add to audirvana's own library - neither seems to help.
I am using Itunes 12.1.0.50 and audirvana plus 2.0.9 on a macbook air, with yosemite 10.10.2
Any suggestions would be very welcome as most of my music is on the external drive which makes what I can use audirvana for very limiting.
Thanks!

I have long been under the impression that the optical connections on Macs (i.e., the headphone jack) were limited to 24/96 and that if I wanted anything higher than that, I'd need to use USB. Using the optical connection of my 2008 iMac, this 24/96 limitation appeared to be accurate. I'm now using Audirvana Plus 2.5.3 on my new Mac Mini (2014) and have connected to my old Musical Fidelity V-DAC using the optical connection. If I enable "maximum rate upsampling" in Audirvana, the Audirvana window shows 24/192 but I get no sound at all. If I enable "power of 2 oversampling only," the Aurirvana window shows 24/176.4, and I have audio output. I'm not sure what to make of this since I thought optical wouldn't do higher than 24/96, and I am fairly sure that this old V-DAC maxes out at 24/96. Is this a bug with Audirvana Plus or do the optical connections on the newer Macs work differently from the old ones?

My mid-2008 iMac just died, leaving me without computer audio for the first time in a long time. My music library is stored on an external drive that was connected to this iMac, and I use Audirvana Plus to feed speakers through my DAC. It was a very simple setup that I have enjoyed for many years.
Now I need to replace the source, and I am thinking that a Mac Mini probably makes the most sense. I’m already heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem, and I have little interest in streaming at this point in time. The plan would be to setup a headless Mini that will be used only for computer audio (mostly redbook, some 24/96 but no DSD). I plan to keep my music library on an external hard drive.
In this scenario, is there anything you’d suggest changing about the following before I place the order:
2.6GHz Processor (I’m not sure if a faster processor would make a noticeable difference in audio quality, but I’d guess not)
16GB RAM (since it is not user replaceable, I figured it would be smart to get more than I probably need)
1TB hard drive (or should I consider a 256GB SSD for the operating system instead even though the music files will be on an external drive?)
Thanks for your input.

Hi!
I just recently upgraded to the latest version of Audirvana.
I don´t know what happend, erlier it was just to start everything up and start playing.
Now I have to select the Young Dac in the Output pane of Sound preferences on the Mac
then I have to go into Audio system settings in Audirvana and change the Preferred Audio device every time.
Audirvana seems to revert to Built-in-speakers all the time.
This did not happen before.
How can I prevent this from happening?
Cheers!
/Magnus

Using A+ 2.2.5 (without iTunes integration) > Late 2009 MacMini (4GB running Yosemite 10.10.5) w/library on 3TB Lacie Firewire 800 Drive > USB >Schiit Wyrd > USB >Oppo 105D > analog preamp.
Just acquired many music files that lack art or some correct basic metadata needed such as ALBUM or ALBUMARTIST. Not that it should matter, but some the subfolders/files are different versions of the same album, e.g. one folder containing 8 files all with metadata ALBUM: The Nightfly (Needledrop MFSL) and another folder containing 8 files with same TITLE for each track but ALBUM: The Nightfly (DVD-A).
When I edit ALBUM in Yate and save with all tracks in the folder I get green circle to the left of each track indicating that my changes have been saved. However, A+ doesn't show that I've made any changes and instead combines two different folders' tracks all into one album in album view with duplicates. When I view metadata for each individual track, I see the correct path leading to both versions of the track, but the updated values don't show in the ALBUM or ALBUMARTIST fields.
I've tried manually syncing the A+>Preferences>Library> (Sync Folder), closed/reopened A+ but nothing gets the updates to view properly in A+.
This trouble started around the time I updated to A+ 2.5.5 , but can't say for sure if that started my issue.
FWIW, the MacMini is used only as a music server with Spotlight, etc. defeated, and A+ on "extreme priority", but A+ is slow to respond to typing, saving etc. Apple says can't add any more memory to this macmini(?). Others report okay results w/4GB mem Macs...
So any ideas how to resolve my metadata issue, resulting in proper separate albums in A+ ? I am frustrated enough that I am close to bailing out on A+ and trying JRiver or Amarra instead in hopes of spending less time having to mess with everything all the time just to be able to find and play albums from my library. Thanks!

Hello, I wonder if anyone can help... I can't get AP 2.2 to play through Airplay to an Apple TV connected to a DAC. I was able to get it to work some weeks back, but no more. I have preferred audio device set to Airplay, I have Airplay NOT selected in iTunes and in Sound preferences I have audio output set to internal speakers. Thanks..

Very pleased with Audirvana performance, however, I have noticed that the playback quality of identical files varies considerably, depending on whether they are being played singly (no other files in the Audirvana playlist) or as part of a larger playlist, e.g. an album.
I am currently running an early-2009 iMac (Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz, OS X 10.7 Lion, 8GB RAM, nVidia GeForce 9400m).
I plan to build a Mac Pro to support Audirvana optimally and have some questions re specs:
1)
Does Audirvana make use of any libraries or OS APIs (e.g. OpenCL, GCD etc…) which would be best served by a particular spec? For example, if OpenCL is used, a machine with a dedicated GPU would be desirable.
2)
What hardware resources have the most impact on Audirvana operation? For example, how RAM intensive is it? Does it operate better with more CPU cores? Would there be a noticeable performance difference between DDR2 & DDR3 memory?
3)
Is there an optimal version of the Mac OS to target? An older version will place less load on the rest of the system, but might not offer optimal API support for the application. This will be a dedicated machine, so compatibility with other software is not important.

Here a question from a newbie to Audirvana.
First my setup:
- Mac mini i7, 8gb RAM
- iTunes latest version
- Rega DAC
Mac mini is connected to the Rega DAC via toslink (Audioquest),
Rega DAC connected to the amp.
Normally I use Amarra, but I want to give Audirvana a try.
My problem is the following:
In preferences I have the preferred audio device set to 'Built-in Output' so the audio stream goes thru the toslink cable to my DAC.
But, in Audio Midi setup I can see that the HDMI output is active! If I change this manually to built-in output, there is no sound.
Another strange thing is that internet radio has no sound when Audio Midi is in HDMI, but when manually switched to built-in output there is sound for the internet radio (again, no sound from music in iTunes library).
See the screenshot. Active audio device in Audirvana is different than the actual audio device in Audio Midi setup.
How is this possible. If I can get this to work properly I want to buy the software. I see that Damien, the developer, is a member of this forum..
Thanks in advance.
Mark

DAC: Peachtree DAC*IT.
Hi all.
I looked through the threads and couldn't find an answer to this. Why would BitPerfect be telling me my DAC isn't integer mode capable but Audirvana is, or at least I assume it is, because with USB the green "INT" light goes on in the display?
Not a huge deal since both sound great, but if I'm missing a tweak or twock in BitPerfect, I'd like to know.
Thanks,
David

Folks:
I have a specific question about Audirvana Plus and some remote play issues.
I am trying to play a 24/96 file and I want to pipe it over AirPlay to a remote system. The remote system works fine when I am playing iTunes with OR without Audirvana, so I know the basic setup is okay. When I play the files to my desktop computer (USB --> V-link 192 --> BiFrost --> etc.) everything works great. However when I try to play to a remote system via Airfoil, nothing. It could be that I just don't have Audirvana set up for that which is the likeliest; it could be that Audirvana won't play to a remote system which is possible but unlikely; it could be that Airfoil and Audirvana don't play well together which is most likely.
The only solution I can think of is that I need to keep the files I'm trying to send through Audirvana and Airfoil to 16/44.1 but I haven't tried that yet - reluctant to purchase 16/44.1 files and I don't know how to get one off of iTunes... I'm sure it is something trivial but I just can't figure out what it is.
If anyone has worked this kind of (I assume) mundane issue out, please advise.
Thanks,
Mike

Hi everyone,
my setup is as follows:
2006 MacbookPro with 2Gbytes RAM -> a Mytek 192 DSD connected via Firewire -> Volume bypassed to a Musical Fidelity A5 amp -> Totem Forest loudspeakers.
With Audirvana+ 1.5.2 (paid version, no trial) i can't play any DSD file (64 or 128) without hearing an enormous amount of white noise which makes music unlistenable.
Audirvana+ 1.5.1 was the same.
Tried all possible DSD settings in audirvana, and also tried with USB 2.0 instead of Firewire. Same mess.
Audirvana support is unresponsive.
I am trying playing .DSF files and .ISO SACD as well.
I can't get Pure Music (trial version) to play any DSD file.
I also tried KORG audiogate and it works..but it appears to convert DSD to PCM real time as the DAC does not switch to "DSD".

My system (so was my relative mania) was laid to rest for several years.
Since my (once was reference, very expensive) cd player refused to wake up, I turned to computer based audio (using my MBP Retina 15”).
I used to hear differences based on the cleaning fluid applied on my vinyls (cleaner grooves are wider grooves; i.e. the bass extension provided by Smart - Premier Pre-Cleaner, even on brand new records, is amazing); I could not resist exploring sonic impacts in the computer audio realm.
Here are my findings:
Respect endianness (relates to file/processor interaction ; further readings might be : The FLAC Audio Format | Start at Zero and aiff). Apple discretely turned AIFF little endian: it matters. FLAC is big endian while Intel processors are little endian. WAV is the uncluttered little endian file format: convert your files to wav just before playing (store flacs for size & tagging). It takes seconds with XLD (Mac) and it’s free (though we should all donate). Yes FLAC offers lossless compression and all your bits are there; but it doesn’t sound as good as AIFF-C and WAV is even better. Because of endianness.
To exit any process that can have a hold on a file, including the Finder, seems best practice.
Minimize CPU load
Yes, you already know that and quit all unnecessary applications etc, but… Using Audirvana +, I heard horrors when streaming audio files from my Time Capsule, because of longer processing times keeping the processor highly active while the track had started playing. Google “RFI” and you will know why it sounds awful. Now I first import on my ssd and wait for the cpu load to come back to zero or so before I launch a track. I wish Damien Plisson would implement an option allowing us to preprocess and load a whole album in RAM, ahead. I think that the sequential processing from track to track is a major design flaw that defeats part of the “Full memory play” promise; in the “Tracks loading, decoding, format conversion complete before playback to ensure best Sound Quality” claim, there should not be a “s” to (more than a few)tracks. Check your Activity Monitor. For the same reason of almost continuous cpu load and thus, RFI, playing isos was also unbearable to my ears. Take the time to extract dff from your isos with sacd extract.
EQ & deess
I love my music scary, to involve my whole skin in the listening experience. I can comfortably enjoy the 2 drums + 2 basses interplays in Daft Punk/Moroder’s Georgio and be worried for my things and walls by the deep electronic notes at the very end: I don’t listen through headphones. And thus have room interactions.
I enjoyed Amarra very much, over Audirvana, until I could go further with a Audirvana 1.54/iZotope Alloy 2 combo.
My eq is based on Amarra’s setting for classical with an emphasis of the deep in the 800 Hz region, maybe because of my room.
Amarra’s :
My EQ :
My deesser setting :
the whole idea is to apply a dynamic eq that never interferes with acoustic music (never saw my deesser triggered by any kind of classical music).
Do I interfere with the original mix, the artist (engineer) intention etc ? oh yeah ! So do you anyway by the mere simple act of playing back music on your system with its idiosyncratic characteristics. I feel perfectly comfortable, subtly and surgically, smoothing vocals when they are shrieking on a reference grade system because of a mix/mastering for cheap record players years ago or smartphones nowadays.
Give it a try: you will crank the volume up and get a much more concert like, realistic, playback.
Think twice about DSD
Especially if you’re a Mac user. I purchased the TEAC UD 501 partly because of its DSD capabilities. However, I now convert to PCM through Audirvana (cleaner to my ears than Audiogate, though with a loss of bass weight).
Mainly, it allows me to benefit from iZotope Alloy 2. With a slightly different eq to compensate for the loss of bass weight :
Furthermore, though Audirvana can feed the TEAC via DoP (and bits are preserved, OK) it does not automatically detect the device as DSD native though it is. I wonder (read : I doubt) if the global process is optimum.
Anyway, I never liked what I heard feeding the TEAC with DSD from the Mac (DoP mode); I enjoy very much my converted eqed dff files…
Choose the right filter
There might be a rational for playing back pcm through the TEAC with a sharp filter for redbook, a slow filter for 96 K, and no filter above…
Well, now we get bored, don’t we ?
I turned the upconverter on and the PCM filter off and am happy… ("Minimal Phase filter", see : Archimago's Musings: MEASUREMENTS: Digital Filters and Impulse Response... (TEAC UD-501)).
Cheers ,
Le Concombre Masqué
P.S. : I have long been an analogue enthusiast and record collector.
I have been blown away by what Paul Stubblebine did on Waltz for Debby for HDtracks (I own a test pressing of the Acoustic sounds 45 rpm ; always found it much inferior to its SatVV sibling though) or by what Kevin Reeves did on the Velvets for HDtracks (I own an unbrushed Eric Emerson cover very first pressing).

Greetings!
I've been reading alot about integer mode on the Mac lately. I tried bitperfect, but it couldn't enable integer mode on a Mountain Lion laptop, but Audirvana did.
When I finally got integer mode activated, I noticed an increased bass response almost immediately. I remember turning up the gain on my subwoofer last night, and I was definitely turning it down on the same songs after I got this working. I subsequently read somewhere (i can't remember where) that increased bass response is typical when activating integer mode.
I have a umik on the way and my master plan is to run RoomEQ wizard to get some recommended parametric EQ settings, then use the AU ParametricEQ in Audirvana to implement it. I'm trying to find the holes in this plan before I start buying stuff so now I have a couple of questions. I purchased AudioHijack and Bitperfect before I had this all figured out and now it looks like Audirvana will do what I want, but want to be sure before the trial finishes.
- Room EQ Wizard doesn't look like it will work in integer mode and I don't think I can use pre-recorded test tones with it. Since its recommended EQ settings will be based on a non-integer-mode measurement, will that incorrectly EQ Audirvana if I use the Audio Unit eq plugin?
- I believe AudioUnits is a Core Audio function. If I activate an eq plugin, will that pull Audirvana out of integer mode or out of the iZotope thing?
I'm basically trying to decide if I can do this all with software or if I need to get an external EQ.

Glad to see some mainstream consumer media coverage of an audiophile music player. Hopefully this is the beginning of what's to come.
The best summary one liner of the review: "Nurtures the hidden sound of your music; Best stereo music player available"
Congrats Damien for getting a very favorable review by the folks at MacWorld UK:
Audirvana Plus 1.4 review: Perhaps the best stereo music player available for your computer - Mac software - Macworld UK
Gary

Hi there,
First post, so go easy on me! ;-)
Last week I purchased an Eastern Electric (Tube) DAC Plus. As instructed, I downloaded the USB drivers for Mac from the company website, but at first could not get the DAC to work using Audirvana Plus (1.4.6) as my front end. After fiddling with the Audirvana settings, I was able to get up and running. But this entailed having to disable 'Direct Mode'.
So, my question is: is the problem more likely to be related to the EE drivers rather than the media player?
I hope I am not missing too much by not being able to run in Direct Mode!
Thanks in advance.
PQ

I am certainly new at computer audio, but although it first worked rather good I have now stumbled in a problem that the iTunes - Audirvana Plus integration seems to be broken. When I want to play an album I see before my eyes that the software cycles through all tracks continually without stopping. I only wanted to play from the first track to the end. What have I done to deserve this after spending so many hours bringing a part of my big classical collection into iTunes (also a wringing game !).
Hope someone can give a hint what is wrong because the integration between iTunes and Audirvana worked quite good.
System is
MacBook Pro OS X 10.8.2 iTunes 11.0.1 Audirvana Plus 1.4.5 Wadia 121 Decoding Computer Audio Research SP 9 Mk.II Mark Levinson No. 23.5 Martin Logan Sequal II electrostatic loudspeakers Assorted cabling. The audio files are on a seperate LaCie 3 TB disk connected to the MacBook Pro via USB cabling.
Thanks for the advice in advance
Kees Kort, Apeldoorn, Netherlands

Bonjour everybody,
after having spent weeks reading through this forum, I dare today write my first post.
Please forgive my bad writing as I post to you from Paris France.
I'm currently setting up my first real Audiophile equipment:
I chose to pair PMC twenty 22's with a Naim Nait XS2 amp, so that's the kit sitting proudly in my living room waiting for a source to join.
I've got almost all my music on CD plus a couple of Hi-res albums I downloaded. I ripped all of my CD's (into 16/44 AIFF) to my (2009) MacBookPro for the convenience of iTunes playlists. Thanks to all of you, I understood I had to look for a proper reading software to overrule iTunes, I'm currently trying Audirvana plus out.
So, to my questions:
I went, a couple of weeks ago, to my local dealer to try some DACs out. I brought my MacBookPro and we plugged it into the different ones. I quickly narrowed the choice to one of the tested DAC's, a PSAudio nuwave DAC.
The tests were done plugging in the Mac into the PSAudio by USB and using iTunes as player (I did not have Audirvana plus at the time). And I must say I was quite disappointed at the sound coming out through this setup, what ever the DAC, compared to sound I got through a CD player plugged to the Naim (Audiolab 8200CD and CambridgeAudio 851C).
Cd sounded crisp and bright, precise, while through the Mac and DAC the same tracks converted into AIFF (stored on the Mac's hard drive) sounded dull and muffled.
Was it because I was using iTunes as a player? Was it because the DACs were not suited to my kit (Naim NaitXS2+PMC 22s)? Was it because I should have stored the files on an external Drive and not the Mac's one to avoid the computer's proper OS to disrupt the signal by accessing to the Hard drive for its own needs? I'm planing to return to my dealer's for some new listening using Audirvana plus but I'm not sure this was the only explanation to my problem. Am I wrong to be expecting the same crispness of sound coming out of my computer+DAC as from a CD player?
Thank you in advance for your Help!

hi, what the big deal with use itunes with that others apps like:
Amarra, Audirvana Plus+, BitPerfect, Fidelia, Pure Music
just for read .flacs and .iso sacd rips??? is just for add itunes formats? but not for make itunes sound better? or yes using that apps even the mp3 can sound better? or whats the deal, I dont get it... thanks